Provisions on Prohibition of Child Labour(Adopted at the 63rd Executive Meeting of the State Council on September 18, 2002, promulgated by Decree No. 364 of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on October 1, 2002, and effective as of December 1, 2002)Article 1These Provisions are formulated in accordance with the Constitution, the Labour Law and the Law on the Protection of Minors for the purposes of protecting the physical and mental health of minors, promoting the implementation of the system for compulsory education and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of minors.Article 2No State organs, social organizations, enterprises, institutions, private non-enterprise units, or individual industrial and commercial businesses (hereinafter referred to as employing units) may recruit and hire minors under the age of 16 (the term hiring minors under the age of 16 is hereinafter referred uniformly to as use of child labour).All units and individuals are prohibited from providing job placement service to minors under the age of 16.Minors under the age of 16 are prohibited from starting business and engaging in individual business operation activities.Article 3The parents or guardians of minors under the age of 16 shall protect their physical and mental health, safeguard their rights to compulsory education and shall not permit them to be illegally hired by employing units.Where the parents or guardians of minors under the age of 16 permit them to be illegally hired by employing units, the peoples government of the township (town), the urban subdistrict office, the villagers committee or the residents committee where they are located shall criticize and educate the parents or guardians.Article 4Employing units, when recruiting employees, shall verify the identification card of the recruited; no minors under the age of 16 shall be recruited. The employing units shall properly preserve the documents for recruitment registration and verification.Article 5Labour and social security administrative departments of the peoples governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the supervision over and inspection of the enforcement of these Provisions.Administrative departments for public security, industrial and commercial administration, education and public health, etc. of the peoples governments at or above the county level shall supervise and inspect the enforcement of these Provisions within their jurisdiction and support the supervision and inspection conducted by the labour and social security administrative departments.Trade unions, Youth Leagues, Womens Federations and other social organizations shall protect the lawful rights and interests of minors in accordance with law.Any unit or individual shall, where discovering child labour, have the right to report the case to the labour and social security administrative department of the peoples government at or above the county level.Article 6In the case of use of child labour by an employing unit, the labour and social security administrative department shall punish it by the standard of fining 5,000 yuan for each of children employed per month; In the case of use of child labour in workplaces where toxic substances are used, a heavier punishment shall be imposed in consistence with the fine range stipulated in the Regulations on Labour Protection in Workplaces Where Toxic Substances Are Used, or by the standard of fining 5,000 yuan for each of children employed per month. The labour and social security administrative department shall order the employing unit to send the children back to their original places of residence and hand them to their parents or other guardians within a prescribed period, and all the costs of transportation and accommodations so entailed shall be borne by the employing unit.Where the employing unit, when ordered to make corrections by the labour and social security administrative department in accordance with the preceding paragraph, fails to send the child labourers back to their parents or other guardians within the prescribed period, the labour and social security administrative department shall punish it by the standard of fining 10,000 yuan for each of children employed per month from the date of ordering corrections to be made within the prescribed period, and the department for industrial and commercial administration shall revoke their business licenses or, the civil affairs department shall cancel the non-enterprise unit registration; if the employing unit is a State organ or public institution, the relevant units shall impose administrative or disciplinary sanctions of demotion or discharging from the post on the persons in charge directly responsible and other persons directly responsible.Article 7Where a unit or an individual provides job placement service to minors under the age of 16, the labour and social security administrative department shall punish it by the standar